1. Field of the Invention
The present device relates to guitars. More particularly it relates to a tremolo arm for use during the playing of guitars which does require the user to grip the arm with their hand during use.
2. Prior Art
In music, a tremolo is a trembling vibrato effect imparted to the played music heard by the listener. When playing a guitar, a tremolo effect is produced by a variation in amplitude of the produced note.
A variety of mechanical tremolo or vibrato systems for guitars have been developed and employed by musicians since the 1930's and are employed to add a vibrato to the sound of the music, by imparting a change to the tension of the strings. Typically the mechanical action to impart this change in tension is communicated to the bridge or tailpiece of an electric guitar. The implement of choice for most guitarists to impart this tensional variation to elicit the vibrato effect to their music, is a controlling lever, often referred to as a whammy bar, a vibrato armor bar, or a tremolo armor bar.
During guitar playing, gripping the lever by the musician and imparting an oscillating motion to the bar, toward and away from the body of the guitar, enables the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily. On an electric guitar this imparted movement of the bridge to vary string length and tension, also moves the strings into differing positions within the magnetic field proximate to the electronic string pickups. Both of these temporary and varying physical changes to the strings, cause a change the pitch of the music produced, to create a vibrato, or pitch-bend effect to the sound.
Since the regular appearance of mechanical vibrato systems generally using gripped-arms to change string tension in the 1950's, such devices have been regularly employed by many guitarists. In the 1960's and 1970's, vibrato or tremolo arms connected to the mount for the guitar strings or bridge, were widely used for significantly more dramatic effects by rock and roll guitarists. Since then the pitch-bending effects produced by movement of the tremolo arm, whether subtle inflections or exaggerated effects, have become an important part of many styles of electric guitar, and a welcome addition to virtually every electric guitar.
Typical prior art is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,741,146 by Fender, an example thereof shown in the drawings as prior art, teaches a tremolo device for stringed instruments and which is included in this disclosure as part hereof. Fender teaches a stout handle which is pivotally engaged to a base and which may be rotated out of the way when not in use.
In use in conventional devices like that of Fender, the bar is rotated to a comfortable position for gripping in the hand of the user. Once gripped, the user oscillates movement of the bar by pushing it toward the guitar body, and immediately pulling it back again. This movement produces a tremolo effect in the music through the communicated force in the arm, moving the bridge which affects string length and position over the electronic pickups.
However, systems typical of that taught in Fender have significant shortcomings. First, such long pivoting arms, when pivoted upward toward the strings for use, such conventional tremolo bars are configured for operation using the guitarist's fingers to grip there-around and activate the vibrato action. This concurrently eliminates the employment of the same fingers to continue to pluck or strum the strings of the guitar while using the bar.
Further, conventional tremolo bar systems do not allow the user to keep the tremolo bar in use at all times since it is adapted to fall below the strings when not in use, and out of reach while using the guitar pick or fingers to play. Additionally, because when out of use, they are generally pivoted toward the bottom of the guitar, the conventional elongated tremolo bar must found again by the user's hand, without missing a note while plucking on the guitar in the process.
Still further, as noted, such elongated members are configured to be gripped in the hand between closed fingers for use, and consequently are configured elongated and narrow in width to facilitate such a gripped-use. However this narrow elongated configuration also precludes the musician from attempting to use the member as a hand support during playing since it offers little contact support area and being pivotally engaged it tends to easily rotate in such a hand and lever contact when it is not gripped by the fingers. Finally, many arms such as the Bigsby arms, have a stop built in which prevents the arm from rotating to a position elevated over the strings.
As such, there exists an unmet need for an improved tremolo bar device that allows employment for use with the palm or another surface of the hand which contacts a large planar contact surface, or may be employed by a gripping of the user's fingers along an edge to thereby allow a user to implement the tremolo effect with a surface of their hand while concurrently playing the strings. Additionally such a tremolo device should be configured to be positioned over the strings or adjacent thereto during use or non use, and thereby eliminate the need to search for the tremolo bar as in prior art, when rotated out of use. Still further, such a device should have a contact surface which is contoured in a shape which is complimentary to the curved surface of the hand of a user to achieve a comfortable and secure engagement during use. Finally, such a device should be easily engageable to a wide variety of bridge engagement with stringed instruments as a replacement.
The forgoing examples of related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the tremolo device and method described and claimed herein. Various additional limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.